I was born and raised in Rio de Janeiro,  Brazil, where nearly half of the population is afrodescendent. During my childhood I spent my summer vacation in Madureira, the ‘black” neighborhood where my father grew up, his mother and siblings still lived there. Because of this I had the opportunity to experience the black culture like religion, music, dance as if I was one of them. I've carried these memories and experiences through my life.

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The black population in Brazil, as in many other countries,  are not truthfully or accurately portrayed in books and media. So in 2003 I started a personal project about the african brazilian to portray the beauty and culture of these people through individual faces with different attitudes and lifestyles, but in 2004 I moved to United States then I included the African Americans and the Africans who lived America. Once a year I came to Brazil to photography the afro brazilians.  My  portraits  reflect the value, uniqueness and worthiness of self, and they provide a sense of the presence of this population that is often ignored or misrepresented.  In my images I try to reflect a sense of the person, the individual who lies beneath the image. My work portrays people in a non traditional way and their  facial expressions convey different kinds of emotions. Generally the people I work with are not models, but regular people that wish to be photographed.

 

From an aesthetic perspective I like the contrasts and textures that I get when converting photographs into black and white.

 

I keep the pictures as simple as possible with nothing that will distract the eye from the main idea. I try not to spend too much time in the post processing because I prefer to achieve most of what I have in mind when I am photographing. Hays,  clays,  straws and other things related to African/ black culture can be seen in my work . In September 2012 I launched the book Black Faces in Brazil. In February 2013 I moved back to Brazil.